windhorse:scrapbook

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

After many years of wanting to have its own Evolution Shop, in 2007 Colchester finally got one. The trend in recent years in most of our shops has been towards mixed teams of Buddhists and Non-Buddhists. Colchester was our first shop for many years that started life being run by a completely Buddhist Team. Most of whom were involved in some way with the shop set up before its opening. Here is a selection of photographs of that set up in progress.

Thursday, 10 October 2013

After a months of design, consideration and construction our new Trade Show Stands were given their trial run at the NEC in February. A few major teething problems did subsequently require further work and creativity.

After clocking up hundreds and hundreds of miles, our Sales Vans have to be retired and replaced. Quite often this is also an opportunity to consider improvements to the internal layout and conditions within the vans. So fitting them out is given a lot of attention. Here's our newest acquisition.

During 2012 Ivan Trujillo decided to revamp the Wholesale Shrine dedicated to Padmasambhava. It was constructed over a number of weeks, partly during Right Livelihood Meetings with the help of his team, but mostly in any spare time during the day. Here are a few photographs of some stages in its creation.

Outside the Warehouse building, is a small fenced off garden. During 2012 Matthew began cultivating organic herbs,squashes and tomatoes inside it By the end of the Summer were beginning to ripen.
Here are a few photos taken in September 2012.

Triratna as a Buddhist movement places an emphasis on the role of the arts in refining ones spiritual receptivity and expression. It is also one way we can make explorations into what a genuinely Western Buddhist Culture might be. In 2011 Arthasiddhi after many years of encouraging involvement in choirs, launched a competition to write new pieces for choirs based on a traditional Buddhist text. This video presents the five entrants and their finished choral pieces.

In response to questions raised by workers from Windhorse: evolution, Subhuti discusses the difference between intensity and frenzy, plus the necessity of defining boundaries in order to safeguard things we see as of value or precious.

As the first day of the seminar came to a close, Subhuti raises the issue of how Postive Emotion used in the workplace can be a skillful Karma, and how to approach the inevitable tensions that arise between renunciation and social engagement.

In the second part of Subhuti's Seminar the discussion looks at what it means to run a Right Livelihood business, what are the distinctive challenges of it as a practice and an opportunity for realisation?

WINDHORSE: EVOLUTION

This blog is a photo and video archive to record the past as well as the present history of windhorse:evolution, which is a giftware business run according to Buddhist ethical principles.
Our staff are largely Buddhists, or people in sympathy with our ethos, drawn from a broad range of countries and cultures.
Our profits go towards supporting Buddhist practice, practitioners and social projects, both here and abroad.